.com vs .org vs .info

by zurich
16 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Has anybody ever registered three identical domain names (with different suffixes) and built out three identical sites (with the same content) to see which ranks higher and more quickly for a given search phrase?

I've been hearing for a while that .org always comes out on top, but I'd be curious to see if anyone has run an actual test.
#info #org
  • Profile picture of the author Sour
    I've never heard of Google having preference over any TLD. I'm pretty sure it's just a myth; otherwise, we'd all be registering .orgs.
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  • Profile picture of the author himanuzo
    According my experience... both .com and .org are better than .info to rank a targeted keyword on Google. However, you still can rank the .info for the targeted keyword and you need more backlinks than both the .com and the .org.
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  • Profile picture of the author theentry
    There shouldn't be any difference.. and why to put all the resources (backlinks etc) to 3 identical domains when you can build 3 different ones
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Black shirt vs. Gray shirt vs. Brown shirt? Which will I wear today?

    There are a lot of tough decisions that I have to make today...

    I don't think it matters much on your question, as it really doesn't matter what color I wear today.

    However, I do only buy .com, because if a person is trying to remember the name of my site, they will most always type domain name dot com into their browser.

    I figure better safe than sorry on that count.

    But if you don't anticipate anyone ever manually typing in the domain name, then flip a coin.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      However, I do only buy .com, because if a person is trying to remember the name of my site, they will most always type domain name dot com into their browser.
      I agree.

      Domain extentions don't affect SEO at all, but if you don't have the .com, there's always the worry that someone else does, and you can lose some traffic to them, and so on.

      For some of my "informational" sites, I really prefer .info domains, which many people think look better for an "information site". But then I buy the .com as well, and just redirect it to the .info.

      But don't listen to anyone telling you that .com domains rank more easily: as we've seen here in 500 other threads, they don't know what they're talking about.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    The OP has a good point if anyone bothered to read what he asked.

    There are a lot of opinions being flung around on this topic but how many people have really tested what they preach?

    I haven't. Have you?

    Repeating something that someone said that one time at the watercooler when Jimmy did that funny thing that made Mary squirt milk out of her nose doesn't do anybody any good.

    Joe Friday, Just the facts Ma'am.
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    • Profile picture of the author tpw
      Originally Posted by jasonmorgan View Post

      The OP has a good point if anyone bothered to read what he asked.

      There are a lot of opinions being flung around on this topic but how many people have really tested what they preach?

      I haven't. Have you?

      Repeating something that someone said that one time at the watercooler when Jimmy did that funny thing that made Mary squirt milk out of her nose doesn't do anybody any good.

      Joe Friday, Just the facts Ma'am.

      As a matter of fact, I have a couple sites where I own the .com, .net and .org. Never a .info.

      I have tested them with the same content or very similar content.

      I stand behind my original comment. It does not matter for SEO purposes.
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      Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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  • Profile picture of the author J.M.Wilson
    I'm not sure about rankings but if I'm selling something I would never register a .info or a .org. For me...

    .info screams a site that will provide... dum dum dum... information.

    .org screams a site that will provide official stances on the topic at hand.

    Neither of the two get the searcher into a buying mindset from the outset.

    If you ARE providing information then I see no reason why you couldn't be successful with .info or .org.
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  • Profile picture of the author wtatlas
    I had a small, 5 page site with a .info extension get to position 2 on Google page 1 in a month, overtaking the .com, .org and everything else version of its name. Most of these sites had been around for quite a while and had everything that mine didn't, such as loads of backlinks and content. The site at number 1 was Amazon.

    This was for a popular keyword which returned over 1.4 million search results. My conclusion? I wouldn't waste time worrying about the domain name extension nor would I waste any time testing it
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris X
    I'm not sure about .info as I never tried it.
    But for .com & .org, .com is better...

    I did test it myself and .com won the battle
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    • Profile picture of the author zurich
      Thanks for all the great responses. I'm going to buy three domains today and test this out- I'll report back in a month or so.
      One of the main reasons I'm hoping .info ranks as well is simply their lower cost- if you're building out hundreds of sites, as I am, that $12 saved times hundreds of sites really adds up.
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  • Profile picture of the author bestitrix
    If your trying to make a reputable website and product(s) definitely register the .com extension. But when it comes down to information on the website Google does not choose what extension should rank higher. A dot .info can rank higher than .com, net, and .org. It just really depends on the quality of the information on the website.

    Google "page rank" without quotes and you will see what I mean. This is just one good example.

    BTW, in the past couple of years not a lot of people want to develop websites using a .info extension because spammers can buy them for $0.99 at Godaddy and make spam websites. But Google's algorithm is improving every month and catching them left and right. The .info extension still have the stigma of being a spammy but I think this notion is slowly fading away because the numbers of good domains with .com, .net, and .org are dwindling and .info is becoming more attractive in my opinion at least.
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  • Profile picture of the author webapex
    Some domainers value .com 10x higher than the others, the one clear advantage users and some browsers automatically use,com when typing in an address.

    Whether most of the top ranked sites in competitive fields are .com is due to some search engine bias, or simply the automatic choice for those investing $1000s into development, is hard to determine.

    The low cost of .info domains, $1 or $2 at first from some sources, has made them the favorite for junky, fly-by-night, auto generated sites, this bad association may have been noted by the search engines, I did see one report of a bunch of BANS .info store sites all getting de-indexed at once, again, not totally clear of the extension or quality of the sites was behind it.
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  • Profile picture of the author socialbookmark
    .com and .org domains are the same and all search engines rank them according to their backlinks and other common factors which are important for ranking results. But i don't know about .info domains. I usually don't like to register .info domains.
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  • Profile picture of the author tdd1984
    Originally Posted by zurich View Post

    Has anybody ever registered three identical domain names (with different suffixes) and built out three identical sites (with the same content) to see which ranks higher and more quickly for a given search phrase?

    I've been hearing for a while that .org always comes out on top, but I'd be curious to see if anyone has run an actual test.
    It's called TLD's not suffixes. As for your question, why are you even building such domains. Why not focus on building an actual name you like?

    Sounds like your just registering the domains for spam?
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